Foreign Affairs Committee on June 7th, 2018

[Arun Thangaraj]

We do fund a volunteer program. We work with a number of organizations for that. I'll see if I have the numbers here with me, but that's something we could pull out for you if I don't have it on hand. I'd be more than happy to provide it to you.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Excellent. I'd be interested in that either now or at a later point.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

We're going to go to Mr. Poilievre, our special guest.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Thank you very much.

I have a question about the results-based approach you take. It's something I looked at a lot when I was employment minister. How is it we ensure that organizations that get results-based funding don't sign themselves up to deliver results that were going to happen anyway?

[Arun Thangaraj]

We haven't used a results-based funding mechanism in the sense of a pay-for-results kind of framework. As part of new ways of approaching international development, I think that's something we're exploring. We do know that our American counterparts do that and we're trying to learn from them and from the British and others.

Any time we do make a development investment, we want to make sure that the results are additional. If the results were going to materialize, and that's part of the evaluation going into the funding of a project, they do actually have to move the needle forward or avoid a deterioration of results. There has to be some kind of incremental impact before funding is allocated.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Do you provide performance pay to NGOs at all?

[Arun Thangaraj]

We do not.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

What is the reason for that?

[Arun Thangaraj]

We have had very little experience doing that. Over the last year we've looked at new, innovative approaches, and results-based payment schedules is one of them. We haven't had many proponents who say, “Here's something that we could do results-based funding for.” We have worked with your former department on some of the things they've done to learn from, where they've used either social impact bonds or other results-based mechanisms to see how that applies in the development context. We just haven't had the opportunity to implement that as of yet.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Carleton, ON]

Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Colleagues, that will wrap up our session with the officials.

Officials, I want to thank you very much. You don't have to run off, but you can.

We're going to do the votes now. Then we'll go to Mr. Aboultaif's notice of motion. Then we have one or two other things, but very shortly, depending on how it all goes.

As per how the estimates work, I will read it out for you.

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

Vote 1—Operating expenditures..........$1,706,736,559

Vote 5—Capital expenditures..........$135,243,378

Vote 10—The grants listed in any of the Estimates for the fiscal year..........$4,219,944,467

Vote 15—Payments made..........$50,779,000

Vote 20—Pursuant to subsection 12(2) of the International Development (Financial 1 Institutions) Assistance Act...........$1

Vote L25—Pursuant to subsection 12(2) of the International Development (Financial 1 Institutions) Assistance Act..........$1

(Votes 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, and L25 agreed to on division)

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTRE

Vote 1—Payments to the Centre..........$139,338,189

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

INTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION (CANADIAN SECTION)

Vote 1—Program expenditures..........$11,267,974

(Vote 1 agreed to on division)

Shall I report the main estimates 2018-19 to the House?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

On division.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you very much. That was the hard part for today.

Now, I'd like to go to Mr. Aboultaif's notice of motion. He'd like to present it to committee with no debate, as it is a notice of motion. There will be no debate, as it relates to this, because I understand there's no unanimous consent to waive the notice of motion.

I'll turn the floor over to you.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

I believe a copy of the motion was distributed to all members.

The motion says:

That the committee:

(1) Recognize that there is an urgent need to bridge the humanitarian/development divide that prevents quality education services from being delivered to millions of out of school children in the most volatile regions in the world;

(2) Note that girls are 2.5 times more likely to be out of school than boys in countries affected by crisis due to the persistence of gender inequality and the additional barriers that girls face in accessing quality education;

(3) Believes that Canada should include a focus on girls' education and empowerment as an important theme of the 2018 G7 Summit June 8-9 in Charlevoix, Quebec;

(4) Acknowledges the lasting, non-partisan commitment of the Government of Canada to improving access to education for women and girls throughout the developing world.

And that the committee report to the House the adoption of this motion.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

Thank you very much, Mr. Aboultaif.

After 48 hours, generally speaking, at the next meeting, we'll have an opportunity to move that motion, debate it, and then the committee will decide.

Thank you.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

The next order of business is our motion on the Ukrainian delegation's hospitality.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Is that in camera?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

It's fine.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

We believe in transparency on the subject.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

The motion is that the clerk of the committee make the necessary arrangements for an informal breakfast meeting on Tuesday, May 12, 2018, with a delegation from Ukraine.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I suggest culturally appropriate food, like perogies, cabbage rolls, and that sort of thing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

I've already made arrangements for that.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Excellent. That's wonderful.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Nault]

The last point is that the Auditor General is not available, which all members would be interested in. The decision has been taken that, since we won't be able to get the full report completed in the time that we have allotted, we'll move this to the fall, have a meeting with the AG, and then complete the report. I just wanted you to know that the days we tried to fit it into our already busy schedule just didn't work, so it will have to wait until the fall.

I wanted to inform you that we've attempted to have that work. Other than that, I think that's all there is for the business for today.

Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.